Porto Wednesday 24 September

Up early this morning to see the views as we come back in to Porto.

Time for breakfast and then up on the top deck as we go under the six bridges.

The iron railway bridge was designed by Eiffel 3 years before the Eiffel tower was built. Very pretty scenery, but marked difference between the 2 coast lines.

While we are waiting to dock (which is taking ages) I see a wind surfer about to head out to sea!

Finally time to get off the boat to get on the coach. We have quite a walk from where the boat is berthed to get back on land. We are gobsmacked to see flamingos in the sea nearby. Apparently they haven't been back here for about 10 years so this is a big surprise.

We then do a short city tour (much of what we have ashtray seen on our hip on hip of for a week so) and head to the Fonseca port winery for yet another tasting.

Great views from the hill as we enter the winery for our tour.

The tour was fairly short but still interesting. We rated 3 ports, one route and 2 tawny. The 1927 port is apparently the best and rates 100 which is the highest awarded Port. It was okay but I actually liked the earlier vintage so clearly I am not a port connisuer.

Back on the coach and back to the boat.

Time for lunch and then we are back on the coach again to shuttle us into Porto for free time. Got the chance to do some lay minute shopping so ended up with a cotton dress for myself and VJR gets another souvenir for this wonderful city.

We have a moment to rest up before dinner and during dinner was the a spectacular sunset.

Couldn't get over how many fish were right alongside the boat.

Dinner was a pleasant affair. Didn't like the Portuguese white wine they served so changed to a Rosé which was lovely and dry. We were then told that the reason we took so long to beg this morning was not because of the strong winds but because of the very low tide, we ran aground! Suffice to say that they're are now not sure if we would be able to do a night cruise along the river, but full marks to the captain as he finally got us away from the dock and we had a wonderful cruise along the Duoro to see Porto and Gaia at night. I took so many photos that don't do the experience justice. This has become the highlight of this cruise for me.

Time to turn the boat around and head back to where we were docked. Good luck with that! There are some musicians who have been brought on board to perform in the lounge but I'm ready to head back to the cabin, try and catch up on the blog and then into bed as this is our last night of the cruise, need to pack everything and be ready to disembark the boat in the morning straight after breakfast. It's been one heck of a holiday! Hope you've enjoyed travelling it with me. Now we have to prepare ourselves for the long journey home.